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This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. It follows on from the old one, which is now full. An index of topics from old and new can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"  Feel free to comment and interact. And to suggest topics! |
| Writing Fight Scenes Pt 1 So, as part of my time as someone who writes, I have conducted workshops for the local writers centre. I have done workshops on writing horror, writing short stories and research for non-fiction. But the only workshop I have been asked to do more than 3 times (5 at last count) is âHow To Write Fight Scenes.â As such, I am going to put forth that lecture (generally a 3 hour workshop) here. In a few parts, but here. So, letâs start. A fight scene is one in which conflict occurs between two (or more) characters. The idea of this is to give help and hints to writers for portraying this realistically. And this is only hand to hand combat. If using swords or knives, then we are looking at either specialised skill or other things that complicate matters. Picking up a sword and just using it â as many fantasy novels seem to think is viable â is stupid and impossible. It takes training. You can Yeah, but⊠me all you want, but if I gave a regular person a sword and asked them to defend themself against me (with some training), I reckon Iâd hurt them before they hurt me. Why include a fight scene? A fight scene is an excellent way to show the strengths and weaknesses of a character. We can see their intelligence by their tactics, their physical strength by the attacks they use, and even their standing in society by how used to fighting they are. It can show a hidden past or can show that someone is all talk and no substance. But the main reason for including a fight scene is to show the action and get the reader involved in what is happening in the story. Just saying, âhe punched him, and he hit him back,â means nothing and is dull. But saying, âhe drove his elbow into his jaw, sending him back a pace; in response, he swung wildly, his fist clipping him on the side of the head,â gives more detail. What about trained fighters? Yeah, this question needs to go here before we get into anything else, because the concept of trained martial artists or MMA fighters does complicate matters. But those people are not the sort of people likely to populate a story. You would not include a person with those skills in a book and have them use those skills without some knowledge. I could write about a MMA fighter without an issue, but would struggle with a proponent of Eastern martial arts because I have only peripheral knowledge. The majority of characters we write are not going to be trained like this; they might have some street knowledge, but we are not writing scenes from a Bruce Lee movie. Can we copy fights? If you have the language, can you copy a fight scene from visual media onto the page? This is a great question. No. Simple answer, but unless you are going to completely change things up, the answer is, âno.â But â and this is a big but â that only involves a fight from a movie or from broadcast TV. You cannot use it blow for blow. You can base it on the fight you see or, better yet, combine three or more because the individual moves cannot be copyrighted. And that is the purpose of this â to help people write fight scenes. And I will say here and now that the best way to write fight scenes is to actually copy visual fights, as in, write what you see in a fight. So... can I copy? No... but yes as well. We will get there. Can we leave fight scenes out? Of course! There is no rule that says you must include fight scenes. And some genres do not use them at all. Romance will rarely use a fight scene; Harlequin states none are to be used. Capital-L Literature will not use a described fight scene. Childrenâs books and Middle Grade books should not have fight scenes. In the USA, Young Adult publishers prefer there be none; in the rest of the world, they are not described in detail, but do exist. Having said that last one, I was encouraged to add extra detail in a fight by the Australian publisher of my YA book. In the old days, murder mysteries did not include them, but they are becoming more common. Fantasy, thriller and war genres sort of expect them. Science fiction and Westerns also use them more often than not. There is an audience expectation. Of course you can subvert that, but you might also be annoying the readers. Of course, as always, the call is yours. And that is the basics of why fight scenes are needed at times and where we come from when looking at them. |
| Novel #36 So⊠the next long work I wrote was Sins Of The Fathers. Clocking in at a little over 39500 words, it was not a proper novel, but I submitted it anyway. After editing with the publisher (âCan you add some more description here?â âI need more explanation here.â that sort of thing), it was 41k words, just a novel⊠and became my second book! Told in three timelines, it is about a group of guys who do something terrible as teenagers and it comes back to harm their children. I think itâs okay, but was not real happy with the formatting changes the publisher put on it. Still, he paid me, so there you go. And it is another book! Novel number 36 proper, though, is the only time I have ever written a deliberate sequel to a novel. Letâs jump back to 1987 ("20250331 Novel #3" ) and Into The Crystal. Now, I donât know why, but in 2014, I decided that I wanted to know what happened to Keith and Kathy. So I set about writing this. I introduced their daughter, a young man from our world, and now dreams helped them cross over as well as the crystals. And it ended up being a decent 57k words. Because it is a sequel to that earlier work, I have no plans to submit it, even though I think it is actually not a bad tale.I gave it to a beta reader who begged me for something to read when I didnât have anything completed. She loved it, and didnât even realise it was a sequel. So that is a positive. If I throw them both together, I get a 98k work, so⊠who knows? Me â I ainât doinâ it. The story: It is 26 years on, and Keith and Kathy are estranged. A man named Tiberius has bought Keithâs old house and in his dreams sees a woman, Katarina. He finds he can help her, like a really vivid dream. On the other hand, she also sees him. Then he loses her. It turns out she is Keith and Kathy's daughter and she has been taken by Keithâs half-brother. Tiberius finds a piece of the crystal and this transports him to Katarina. They become lovers and, with two of Tiberius' friends, go out to save the kingdom of AdgaD. Simple, really. The scene is from where Tiberius first meets Kathy, after Katarina was taken. Excerpt The house Kathy unlocked looked from the outside as though its owner took no pride at all in its appearance. What little garden there was was overgrown with browning weeds, some as high as Tiberiusâ hip. The grass was brown and yellow where bare patches werenât showing the dry, hard dirt beneath, and the large paving stones that made the path were all cracked and broken. The house itself was dirty, with broken tiles on the roof, cracked and chipped rendering, and torn and faded curtains in the windows. A huge spider web sat above the door, the dried husk of its builder hanging in the centre. The welcome mat was so tattered that the word was hardly legible. It would have looked abandoned if not for the car parked alongside it. Inside was not much better. The linoleum-covered floors looked like theyâd had a perfunctory mopping maybe a week earlier, the few furnishings were threadbare and the television looked like it had been made in the 1980s. Katherine smiled at him. âHovel sweet hovel,â she laughed. âIâm not going to ask what you think because I know what you think and I reckon youâd be too polite to be honest. But, think about it â anyone breaks in here, are they going to search too hard?â Tiberius looked around again and shook his head emphatically. âRight.â She locked the front door and led him into the barely functionable kitchen. Tiberius remained stunned, unable to reconcile his surroundings with anything he had believed about this woman. Katherine then unlocked the pantry door, revealing five shelves â three empty, one holding some old cookware, the other with cans of food so old they had started to rust â and too many cobwebs. She reached to the very back and moved her hands briefly. A soft âclickâ sounded and she pulled back, taking the whole wall, shelves and all, with her. A light flashed on automatically, revealing a very small room with no floor, but a solid metal ladder leading downwards. Without even looking at her guest, Katherine climbed down. Tiberius hesitated and then, with a final glance at the kitchen, followed uneasily. Halfway down he heard a slight whirring and then a soft grinding as the shelving above closed once again. Tiberius felt as though he was trapped, completely and wholly. The ladder was resting in a room about twice the size of the one above. Katherine grinned just a little and pushed open a solid wooden door. âWelcome to my home,â she said. The area revealed was surprisingly big with a high, vaulted ceiling. At one end was a large bed with a high canopy, at the other was a decent, small kitchen with a highly decorated table and chairs, all carved out of fine wood. In the middle was a couch facing a huge plasma screen television set and stereo system. The floors were covered in what looked like fine furs, the walls were decorated with paintings, and sculptures had been placed at strategic points around the place. Only one door led off this room, he guessed to an en suite; the door he had come through was hidden by a bookcase which contained art and framed photographs along with a lot of reading material. âVery nice,â came out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. âThank-you.â Tiberius stood in the middle of the room. A photograph on the wall caught his attention. Without thinking he walked across to it. A muscular young man in a gymnastics leotard and long white leggings was a holding a pretty young lady with long black hair and also dressed in a leotard above his head. He looked closer, then back at Katherine. âThatâs you,â he smiled. âKeith was a gymnast. I borrowed a leotard from one of the girls and they took that picture. Itâs virtually the only one Iâve got of Keith and me together.â She sighed as she came next to him. âThat was 1988. In the book I said Keithâs mum adopted me. I lied. We got married, and that was because Katarina was born. She was actually conceived in your house.â She laughed without humour. âAnyway, he named her after me. I didnât like the idea, but I do love her.â She touched the photo. âHe was Keith then. Heâs Therion now. And never the twain shall meet.â It is a weird tale, with lots of battle scenes, the good guys all win, and the final scene with Tiberiusâ kids is stupid and needs extending, but I am quite happy with it. |
| External Writerings December 2025 Time again for me to please ask very nicely for you to read my alleged work in columns! I have not included one which was advertising a local event that has been and gone. That still leaves six, 5 about music, one about Rob Reiner⊠Songs about heaven from before the 1980s. Songs about heaven from the 1980s. Songs about heaven from after the 1980s. In which I remember my favourite Rob Reiner films. My favourite Christmas album. Remembering Chris Rea. 6 columns for you to enjoy. Remember, every click from a new IP without an ad-blocker gets me a small amount of money, but it all adds up. Thanks in advance.  |
| Shunn Formatting I keep getting asked what this is despite giving people links to pages that explain it. So⊠Shunn Formatting is the industry standard, printed or online, for submitting a story of any length to a publisher or agent. If they do not ask for certain formatting, use Shunn. What it is: Times New Roman font 12-point size 1.5 or double spaced 1â margins all around No justifying of text, all left aligned Thatâs the visuals Page one: Upper left â legal name Under that, address Then email address Usually then phone number (including international dialling code if sending from another country) Upper right â approximate word count Centre of page: Title of story in bold, centred Beneath that, also centred, name. This is where you include your pen-name If a short story, the story starts 5 carriage returns under the name If a novel, novella, etc., the story starts on page two Do not use tabs or space bar to indent paragraphs; use âFirst line paragraph indentationâ set at 0.5â or 1.25cm. And, yes, apart from the very first paragraph of the story (or of each chapter), all new paragraphs must be indented. Scene changes are indicated by three centred asterisks. Nothing else is accepted. * * * Header: aligned to the right â author name/ story title/ page number NO header on page 1 NO footer Sure, you might be a rebel and decide not to do this. Then a traditional publisher will automatically assume you are going to be difficult to work with, and you will be rejected. However: Always read the publisherâs/ agentâs requirements. They might have changes! The most common are: No header Different spacing Donât include address or phone number Different sized margins Include page break between chapters But these are individual to publishers. FOR EXAMPLE, PAGE ONE: John Smith 2345 words 12 Oak Terrace Washingtonvilleton New South Wales Australia 2998 (+61)0400-000-000 johnsmith@email.address My Wonderful Story By John Doe (pen-name of John Smith) My name is Sam and this is my wonderful story about a girl who is 5 foot 6 and is quirky and dresses in pink and simply adores meaningless info dumps⊠and so on |
| Science Fiction (and Fantasy) ClichĂ©s To Be Avoided This comes from Brandon McNulty, an author and teacher of creative writing. 1) Scientific Info-dumps Letâs kill pacing by telling the audience the science we think they need! Introduce it organically, donât just dump it all at once. I have mentioned this as well, so it is good to see I am not the only one. It is blatant tell versus show. Itâs worse in a book like Lightlark where the infodumps are then negated by the events of the tale, as the laws of the world built are not followed! 2) Stupid Alien Weaknesses We need an alien to be conquered, so letâs give them a weakness! Yes, War Of The Worlds by Wells did this, but it makes sense â of course they neglected microscopic things. But in Signs aliens with an allergy to water invade Earth, a planet with 70% surface water and water in the air! What? 3) Ill-Thought Time Travel This is when the time travel in a story should have created some differences to a time line, even the one where the person has gone back in time, but⊠nope. Does not matter. Looper having the guy survive the assassination attempt by his younger self should have changed everything; a guy notices his fingers disappearing when theyâre cut off, but he shouldnât. It shatters world building. Good time travel? 12 Monkeys. 4) Rushed Romance Now, I know people do not read scifi for romance, but some authors feel they need to throw some in because demographics or shit. But it does not feel earned, natural or normal. Even the rash of romantasy books coming out recently does not do it properly, rushing the romances or adding a third wheel for a love triangle for reasons of clichĂ©. It is just there and breaks reality. 5) Tech Ex Machina In ancient Greek dramas, the gods would appear at the end and save the heroes â the deus ex machine, âgod from the workings.â Well, now we have technology instead. A piece of tech that is conveniently developed at exactly the right time the heroes need it. Like the computer virus in Independence Day. Now, this is McNultyâs list, but I agree with everything he mentioned. Of course, they are still be used, still appearing in published and best-selling books, but we are surely better than that. Arenât we? |
| Six Blame Winter's spudâïž for this one. She tagged me. So, I've been challenged to "blog" 6 things about me that not many know. While it is not the purpose of my blog, I have gone personal at times, so this will be brief. Things I find acutely embarrassing or not something I want to expose are not here. So... 1. I was named Steven for the saint whose day falls on the day after my birthday, and then Anglicised. My initials were chosen to mimic the initials of a famous Australian sporting ground. 2. My father died when I was ten. My sisters don't remember him at all; my memories are of conflict between us. 3. Most know I was a professional wrestler and an acrobat , but I also did stand-up comedy, appeared in TV commercials, drummed for a 50s/60s cover band, and appeared in the TV show Ultraman as a glorified extra,4. My mum taught me to read and write before I started school so I'd stop dictating my stories to her. 5. In 2004 I suffered a catastrophic knee injury while training for a trampoline routine for an acrobatics show. The bed broke and I came down with all my weight on my right leg. This shortened my leg by almost two inches as the tibia and fibula ended up on either side of my femur and my patella suffered a 95degree dislocation. All four ligaments were ruptured. The operation took 10 hours; they sewed up the lateral and medial collateral ligaments, pinned the posterior cruciate ligament in place with a bunch of screws, and could do nothing about the anterior cruciate ligament as it had exploded. To this day, I don't have one; a leg brace acts as my ACL. My doctor told me I would struggle to walk and that sport was now out of the question. I am trained in rehabilitation, so I designed a programme. 13 months after the injury, I performed in front of a crowd; 6 months after that I was back in a wrestling ring. The doctor and I subsequently wrote a paper on my rehabilitation. 6. I am vaguely academic. I got a full academic scholarship to one of the elite private high schools in the state, then went on to tertiary study to get: Bachelor of Applied Science (human movement, combined with a B.Sc., as I majored in biomechanics, and got my rehabilitation training here) Diploma of Journalism Bachelor of Education Diploma of Professional Writing Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing - I topped the course) and I am about to embark on a Master of Arts (MA) in Creative Writing. So, if I come across as a smart-arse, there's my excuse. And that's 6 boring things about me. |
| Novel #35 The second of my spec fic comedies, Fluffy Doom was about the same length as Steele BlastâŠ, but this time based on horror tropes. I started writing it before I finished Steele Blast⊠because the idea would not leave me alone. So, what happened was I was watching an old film where a guy was bitten by a reptile-man and became, himself, a reptile-man. Now, I was already well into my monster dictionary, and so knew about therianthropes, and decided to use the least likely animal that would be turned into a human-animal cross-breed, and the least scary. I chose hamsters. So, this is a story about man-biting were-hamsters. And normal hamsters being carriers of the disease that creates the change. I used every werewolf clichĂ© I could find and added it to a were-hamster tale and made it silly. I also added the clichĂ© of searching for a cure, the girl spraining her ankle at an inopportune time, a giant hamster wheel and the police being completely ineffective and bipolar. Unfortunately, I think the idea was funnier than the execution. There are still some funny bits in it but it is certainly no Steele BlastâŠ. I reckon I might have rushed it. In the end, after all the Speculative Humour tales were completed, it is the second worst (the worst is the last one, and that has stopped me writing them; I was forcing the humour). But it has were-hamsters, changes PoV to lots of side characters, and has some weird situations. It is not the best, but it still makes me smile. Excerpt CHAPTER 1 â THE CHAPTER WHERE WE MEET OUR HERO AND GET A HINT OF WHATâS TO COME. It all started for Craig, interestingly enough, with a solid kick to the testicles. And, unfortunately for Craig, he was most definitely the kickee and not the kicker. Even more unfortunately, the kicker in question possessed the legs of a goddess and the breasts of a relief map of the Himalayas, and was wearing, at the time, a pair of blue stilettos. Still even more unfortunately, the particular kicking person also had a third dan mauve belt in taekwondo. To say Craig dropped like a lump of jelly from a kitchen table would be to understate everything about his response. Words were not possible from the prone pile that had once been Craig, and his hand stretching out pathetically towards the retreating beauty barely left its tender cupping of the afflicted area. It may have been his fault, that part of his mind not engaged in the processing of pain and curling into the foetal position suggested. After all, he had said he wasnât overly keen on her choice of movie and maybe couldnât they see something in a language other than French. Of course, when it came to Sandra, he should have known better â didnât the Riesling versus Moselle argument of last Christmas and subsequent coma teach him anything? â but he wasnât really thinking. He was just hoping that the fact the only language he knew apart from English, was a list of Indonesian swear words he had learnt in Bali a decade earlier might sway things in his favour for once. He had been, as already mentioned, catastrophically wrong. He stayed where he fell for quite a while. He wasnât really sure how long, but it must have been some time because the amount of people walking around and over and on him diminished markedly. By the time his eyes forced themselves open, only two pairs of black boots could be seen. The unfortunateness continued when he gazed upwards and saw who the owners of said boots were. Two police officers stared down at him with practised malice, one already holding what looked like a taser in his hands. âWell, well, well,â one said stereotypically, âWhat have we here then? Drunk in public?â He seemed pleased by the prospect. âHelp. Kicked.â Craig managed to speak. âWhat did he say?â the cop with the taser asked, clearly struggling to form a coherent thought. âKicked. He was kicked. You know, kicked.â To emphasise his point, the other cop kicked Craig with each mention of the word. âOh, kicked.â The other followed suit. âYou know what that means?â the slightly more intelligent cop asked with an exaggerated sigh. âUhh, no.â He went to kick Craig again, but missed and got his own ankle. The pain didnât register. âPaperwork.â Another overly exaggerated sigh and a âwhy me?â look to the heavens. The otherâs shoulders slumped giving him an all too natural Neanderthal look. And that is Fluffy Doom, a strange horror tale that purports to be funny⊠|
| Writing Disabilities Disabilities are becoming more and more common in written works. Unlike in earlier times where the disabled were portrayed as either the bad guy (especially with a physical disability) or an object of pity, or even a joke character, there has been a concerted effort of late to make people with a disability more like, well, people. But this does not come without some issues. So here is a brief look at some common disabilities and how they are and can be used. I will say that I rarely use people with a disability in stories, unless it is a disability I have. I feel it is their story to tell. But sometimes I do know some people want to include people with a disability in their tales. I will also say I know that the term "disability" is no longer generally used, but I think it is the term most of us are familiar with. This is not to imply people who would fit into this list are any lesser as people. It is a look at the tropes that should be avoided when it comes to some people. Blindness This is one disability that seems to have been treated well by creatives. And while the lack of this sense does create a heightening of other senses, the character Daredevil is not a good exemplar of what can happen. Deafness It is difficult to write people who cannot hear, and so few do it. But if you want an example of it done really well, I recommend Impossible Music by Sean Williams (2019). Autism Spectrum Disorder This is one of the more common neurodivergencies used in fiction. But they are either used as figures of fun, or as something akin to an evolutionary step (yes, I am looking at you, The Predator), or as some sort of savant (Big Bang Theory, anyone?). When they are not utilised in these manners, we get horrors like Siaâs Music. The thing is, as the title says, it is a spectrum, and the differences between those on the spectrum can be wide. There are some similarities, but that does mean you cannot represent every person on the spectrum with one character. I have some experience as a qualified teacher of those on the spectrum, and the representations I have seen in films and read in books just makes me sad. I will not write of a person on the spectrum despite my experience because it is definitely their story to tell, and with what I write, how is it going to help the narrative? Down Syndrome People with Down Syndrome are often portrayed as stupid and used as victims or butts of jokes. They are depicted as not being able to learn or being taught things as a matter of rote learning with limited understanding. This diminishes those with Down Syndrome markedly. One of the ladies on the radio station I read at each month has Down Syndrome and she is amazing. Stereotyping people can lead to belittling, and that is what I see too often in written works. Missing Limbs This is where the bad guy trope comes in â they have a missing arm, leg, eye, hand, whatever, and it has made them embittered. That is ridiculous. Often, the person suffering this is resilient and copes really well. They have some issues â phantom limb syndrome is surprisingly common â and depression often accompanies it. Prosthetics do help, but they are not real. It is only in recent years that we have some technologies that enable these prosthetics to be functional, and even then it does not work for everyone. Acquired Brain Injury This is the disability with the widest spread of effects. It can include (but also not necessarily include) personality changes, mood swings, amnesia bouts, permanent memory loss, limb spasms, tics, eyesight issues, referred pains, headaches including migraines, memories of events that never happened, forgetting people they have known for ages, short term memory issues, medium term memory issues, hearing issues, tinnitus, audio and visual hallucinations, learning difficulty (sometimes in only one or two learning aspects), speech issues, and more besides. But no one person will have all of these, or even half of these. Instead, what we get in popular media are people with amnesia or superpowers. Thereâs five that I have seen the most of in films and books and TV. By the way, despite what some claim, depression, homosexuality, insomnia, et al. are not disabilities. They are just a part of what makes human beings an interesting species, and are things that are normal. |
| The Love Triangle In romance â and, recently, romantasy â the love triangle has become the main driving force of many books. Some blame Twilight but it has been around much longer than that. Really, Helen of Troy, Paris and Menelaus are a sort of love triangle, resulting in the Trojan War. They are a staple, it is just that lately it is almost expected that published romance-type works need one. So, this is to list the elements needed to write a decent one. 1) All 3 members of the triangle need to be formed characters This is something that quite a few writers let their readers down with. One of the three characters is not as fully developed, and this gives away just who the lead protagonist will end up with. I will say this is not often with a female/2 males dynamic, but more common in a male/2 females situation. But in Handbook For Mortals, one of the many terrible plot things in the book was that one of the men chasing the MC was just a 2-D cipher. This leads us to: 2) Donât make it obvious who is going to be the final couple Readers want to be invested and cheer for their favourites â think Team Jacob & Team Edward from Twilightâs fandom â so if you make it obvious from the word go who the couple is going to be, that investment is diminished and the Love triangle becomes a Third Wheel. Again, look at Twilight â it was so obvious Bella and Edward were going to end up together, is it any wonder it got icky with Jacob? 3) Both members of the same gender need to be realistic This means that, even if the writer knows who they are going to pair up, both the competing love interests need to have flaws as well as good sides. Too often the one who is going to end up with the MC is flawless, or the flaws are very minor. This is the one thing (ONE) Aster does okay in Lightlark â the two men after the MC have a lot of flaws and both actually come across as douchebags. Which is fine, because the MC comes across as a right cow as well. 4) The choice needs to be organic We are not talking porn where the choice is purely sexual, or the choice is both. The MC needs to choose one of the suitors, and the reasons for doing so need to make sense in the context of the story and the world as developed throughout the narrative. It should lead to it naturally and gradually. When should the choice be made? Not at the very end, but normally right before the climax is what romance writers tend to recommend, though during the climactic scenes often works as well. If the choice happens early, this can work if the rejected one then becomes a jealous antagonist, but that is a different sort of story to the standard Love Triangle. 5) The choice needs to make sense Everything in the story should subtly lead to the choice. Yes, the other suitor could have won, but the choice needs to make sense from the point of view of the MC making the choice. If itâs because the chosen saved the person, fine, but that needs to be developed, not just, âYou saved me, I choose you.â Complex emotions are at play, and should be shown on the page. The Love Triangle is a trope used often because it works. It can also work in other genres (scifi, western and, yes, fantasy) because it keeps the romance subplot from being a tacked on afterthought. It can interweave the romance into the narrative thrust of the story, especially if the rivals have to work together to save the MC from a big bad. Sometimes clichĂ©s and tropes are popular for a reason. And the reason here is simple â it fulfils a harmless fantasy. But the Love Triangle should involve more than a third wheel thrown in to make a bit of a conflict. |
| Christmas Tales So, it is Christmas time. And there are more stories featuring Christmas than nearly any other holiday. Even people in non-Christian countries know Christmas; even non-Christians celebrate it in some way. In modern times, Christmas has come to mean a time for family and supporting one another. So, what do Christmas stories involve? Surprisingly, there are four main ones. Yes, I know there are so many more than four, but the stories that sell, the most popular ones, involve four main⊠themes? Tropes? ClichĂ©s? Letâs see⊠1) Correcting the error of their ways This tends to be the main theme for Christian-based Christmas stories. When someone has the time of the season used to make them realise they are being something of a douchebag, or they have made or are about to make a poor choice. The classic in this style is Itâs A Wonderful Life, the 1946 film. 2) The truth of Santa These are stories where Santa Claus is either proven to be real, or is real and proves his reality to others. Very simple, really. The classic is Miracle On 34th Street (1947 film) where the truth of Santa is proved in a court. This also covers the film The Santa Clause (1994) and CC Mooreâs poem âA Visit From St Nicholasâ (1823). Santa is true and these tales relate that. 3) Getting together for Christmas This is the modern trope, the whole âfamilyâ entertainment thing. Someone has to get to the family in time for Christmas, a family needs to be reunited at Christmas, and similar other tropes. This is just emphasising the whole family concept, and we just need to look at the films Home Alone (1990) and the schmaltzy Iâll Be Home For Christmas (1998⊠and not a personal favourite) for examples. Also included here are tales about getting the desired Christmas present at the last minute, as in Jingle All The Way (1996). 4)Christmas Ghosts And we come to something that was exceedingly common in Victorian penny-dreadfuls, and which has never really gone away â the Christmas ghost story. MR James did a heap, Dickens did many, and I really recommend The Woman In Black by Susan Hill (1983). Ghosts can lead to either of numbers one and three on this list, or can just be a means of making someone understand Christmas and all it encompasses. For example, Dickensâ classic A Christmas Carol (1843) is a combination of this trope and the first one. Now, there are also stories about the birth of Jesus, but those are just reinterpretations or transformatives or interpolations, and really do not sell that well and are not generally popular outside of niche communities. Anyway, those are the four main types of Christmas tales that sell. Maybe something here will inspire you! |
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About the only thing we have in common, and it's not all that close, is my father died during the second week of my Senior Year in High School.
